Thanks again for supporting tasty traditional chocolate

As our campaign finished up Saturday evening with more than successful funding at 105%, with $800 over our initial goal, Dave and I wanted to thank you immensely for your incredible support all through the 2 months of this project with backing, sharing with your friends, getting the word out, helping us with videos, photos, and constant encouragement. Due to all of your generous support, we'll be able to not only support the CASFA Maya organic cacao coop in Xoconusco, Chiapas by purchasing 1000 lbs of cacao to turn into delicious traditionally inspired chocolate bars, help the coop get organic certification for some of their newer farms, buy them a barrel fermenter to get better fermented cacao beans, improve the chocolate equipment infrastructure in Chiapas and Hawai'i, but because you kept pledging over our goal we'll also be able to get the coop chocolate factory a chocolate conche to refine down their own word class chocolate bars. Once they have this last piece of equipment, CASFA can be one of the few places to make great chocolate not only in situ where the cacao was grown, but also where chocolate was invented by the ancestors of the many farmers who still grow cacao in the region.

Even while we're trying to release two new chocolate bar flavors and temper and mold 900 chocolate bars for the Made in Hawaii Festival this weekend, we're starting the ball rolling on getting all your rewards made by getting things in place for CASFA to get the 1000 lbs of beans from Don Isidro Lopez who grew the best cacao we found, get this cacao shipped to Hawai'i and starting grinding it in 65 lb batches into chocolate bars that we'll flavor with the many spices like vanilla, rosita de cacao, and pixtle we've gotten and will get from Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guatemala and then send out to all of you.

So here's to you, many, many thanks, and some photos of the many people involved with this project, all of whom you've made very happy to know there's people out there like you supporting sustainable, ethical, traditional, and delicious chocolate! We'll be in touch soon with a few questions so we can get out your reward bars and we'll keep you updated with their progress.

Don Isidro displaying his beautiful Criollo Royal Aztec cacao pods

Don Rubiel weighing a bucket of wet seed or "baba" coming in from cacao farmers in the region to be fermented by his expert hands

Don Raul explaining how he ferments with banana leaves contacting the cacao to ensure there are no off tastes in the final dried cacao